


Houston, We Have A Problem

by Illiteracy_is_for_woozles



Series: The Future Is History [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Avengers Compound, Avengers Feels, Backstory, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Matter of Life and Death, Mildly Hysterical Character, Military, Military Demonstrations, Military Weapons, NO DEATH, Panic Attacks, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Propaganda, Protective Avengers, Referenced Death of a Sibling, Sentinels, X-Men: Days of Future Past References, X-Men: Days of Future Past Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-02 01:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17878964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles/pseuds/Illiteracy_is_for_woozles
Summary: Rhodey takes Alex to see a demonstration with an old friend and they discover something that wasn't supposed to be there.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Two things before you read the story. (PLEASE READ THESE NOTES)
> 
> Firstly, I know that a few of you readers have personal experience with some pretty heavy subjects that I cover and it's really important for me that you read the tags. This story and the next heavily reference the death of a sibling (this one only references it in the second chapter) and I've had discussions with a few readers about that very personal subject and don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable.  
> If it's easier, you can always message me on @squeaky-floorboards on tumblr and I'll give you a brief recap of a chapter or story. It's not a problem and you are not bothering me in any way for any reason.
> 
> Secondly, and this isn't a trigger warning announcement: The next few stories are heavily plot relevant. This one is more plot relevant to the mutant rights plotline and the next story (Maximoff Twins and Vision!!!) is kinda important to the main story's Part Two (which has been a long-time coming) while also being a really interesting look at a few things I've been dealing with personally.  
> After that is Sam Wilson and then I may need to take a break to write the Ragnarok rewrite, because I really want that to be as close to perfect as I possible can get it.

Rhodey shoved his phone back in his pocket and walked into the living room.

Alex was sitting on the floor on the couch cross-legged, a sandwich in one hand and the remote in the other. He kinda looked like a chipmunk with one cheek poking out like that.

“Hey, did you have any plans this weekend?”

The teenager chewed a couple of times and swallowed. Rhodey winced. _Ow._  


“Nope. Did you have something in mind?”

“An old buddy of mine called. There’s a demonstration for a new project he’s working on in Houston on Sunday that’s open to the press and he wanted me to come check it out as an Avenger.” Rhodey smiled. “He also asked if he could meet you.”

Alex grinned.

“Cool. Let me go pack.” The boy leapt up and ran to his room.

  
  
  


“Colonel!” Major Tassis shouted across the airfield and started jogging in their direction.

Rhodey shook his head at Valentin’s boisterousness.

“Not a Colonel anymore, Val.” He hugged his friend.

“You’ll always be the Colonel around here.” Valentin turned to Alex with a grin. “And you must be the Colonel Jr.”

Alex matched the other man’s expression, shaking his hand.

“Alex.” He waved around at the hanger and all of the news vans. “So what’s all this about anyway?”

Rhodey had no idea either. The invitation had been vague, but Tassis’ face lit up.

“Oh, you’re gonna love it. They told us to try and redo this old project from back in the 70’s  _ without _ all of the bugs.” He started rattling off about how they’d had to replace all of the metal components with rubber and plastic because the General had some weird specifications and how hard the IT teams had had to work when it came to actually  _ programming _ the thing.

Rhodey shared a look of amusement with his son as they followed the Major inside.

On the far side of the hanger was a tall figure draped in a sheet nearly reaching the ceiling.

The duo kept to the back of the crowd when Valentin joined the rest of his team, since they weren’t  _ technically _ supposed to be there. It was a press only event, but Tassis had gotten them special permission as long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves.

The general in charge stood with his hands firmly behind his back and a stern look on his face.

He spoke of the safety of the American people and “world peace” and all the usual stuff generals talked about before revealing a new weapon of mass destruction. But Rhodey wasn’t paying any attention to that.

Instead, his attention was on Alex. The boy’s eyes seemed to be glued on the obscured object, like he thought he knew what it was but was trying to pretend with all of his might it wasn’t that; like a small child that thought pretending something wasn’t real would make it go away.

Rhodey nudged him with his elbow, making the boy jump. He raised an eyebrow.

Alex shook his head and looked back to the general’s speech, but his eyes kept darting back up to the still figure.

Rhodey tried to think of where he’d seen that expression before. He’d seen it-

_ Oh. Oh, that wasn’t right _ . He’d seen that face every single time Tony was around a pool of water those first few years after Afghanistan or whenever someone asked to study the reactor in his chest. Or, even further back, when they were in college and a professor would yell at him and Rhodey would find him in their dorm room later curled up in a ball on his bed.

Rhodey clenched his fists and grit his teeth, trying not to make a scene. He leaned over, whispering in Alex’s ear.

“We can leave whenever you want.”

Alex shook his head again, jaw clenching. His eyes stayed straight forward, only deviating from their path when the sheet was removed and the crowd began cheering.

The giant metal - No, Tassis had said it was all plastics and rubber - man looked like a massive suit of armor to Rhodey, or like one of those mechs from the movie that they’d started to watch last weekend, though the face was more humanoid.  


It clicked just then that Alex had made them turn it off when he’d started having a panic attack.

He turned to see his son beginning to show the signs of hyperventilation and began steering him towards the exit, whispering in his ear.

“It’ll be fine. We’re going home.”

They made it out the door and around the corner before Alex collapsed against the wall, gasping for breath. He tapped his fingertips against his thumb, counting them like he always did when he was trying to calm himself.

Rhodey waited until his breathing had slowed, though he was still doing the finger thing.

“Alex, I need you to tell me what that thing is.” They’d called it a Sentinel, but that mixed with all of the other nonsense the general had said…

Alex closed his eyes and shook his head. Tears dripped down his chin as he looked up.

“That’s why you sent us back.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey calls in the Avengers to decide what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished Sam Wilson's ficlet, so I'm going to start on Ragnarok. Ugh. That movie is a mess, so if you have any suggestions, I'm on tumblr at @squeaky-floorboards and would welcome any and all suggestions or reminders of moral and narrative mistakes for while I'm writing it.  
> I have the next two days off and nothing but laundry to do, so let's see how far I can get before I go back to work on Monday?

As soon as they arrived back at the Compound, Rhodey called an Assembly.

The rest of the Avengers (save Thor, on another of his off-world adventures) gathered in the conference room, confusion evident on their faces until they saw the fear and anger on his.

“Rhodey?” Tony’s voice was his  _ I’m trying not to show how scared you’re making me _ tone.

Yasha and Lenore shared a look when they realized that his attention was on them and them alone.

“Has anyone in this room ever heard of a Sentinel?”

A few hands rose, Yasha and Lenore’s eyes widened.

“Those are the things that were invented in the 70’s but were scrapped because they malfunctioned and almost killed the president, right?” Sam asked.

Yasha gave a sort of hysterical giggle.

“Trask created them to murder mutants.”

Shouts and questions erupted, forcing Rhodey to shout for everyone to be silent again. He gestured for Yasha to continue.

“Trask was insane. He was taking mutants that the army discovered in Vietnam, as well as other places, and experimenting on them, using their DNA and powers to figure out how mutants worked and make his newest project stronger and better able to hunt down mutants and people who could  _ potentially _ have children with the mutant gene.”

Barnes closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath as his son continued.

“He eventually created a working version that the American government agreed to buy, but a mutant that had literally spent ninety percent of his life either imprisoned and experimented on for something he didn’t do or trying to get revenge for the deaths of his family was broken out of prison.” Yasha ran a hand through his hair. “There was a whole time travel mess back then, too, and he found out about the Sentinels and decided to do something about it. On live television.”

Rhodey nodded. He’d had clearance for this kind of thing, but most people didn’t.

“What most people, even the ones that are allowed to know the rest of the story,  _ don’t _ know,” Lenore continued her husband’s train of thought. “Is that Trask had been in search of a shapeshifter to complete his design; he knew that with her DNA his design would’ve been unstoppable, as it would have been able to adapt to any situation and power that a mutant could throw at it.”

No, Rhodey hadn’t known about this.

“When the president was attacked, the shapeshifter took his form and acted as a decoy long enough for the original X-Men to stop him. The event was enough proof, for a few decades at least, that anti-mutant weaponry was more likely to be turned against its human creators and the project was canceled.”

Tony ran a hand over his face.

“And I assume the reason you ask if any of us know what these things are is because you’ve seen one?”

Yasha shook his head. He looked a little desperate to Rhodey, but he understood why.

“They’re not supposed to restart the project for another five years.”

Rhodey sighed and crossed his arms.

“Alex and I were invited to a demonstration by an old friend of mine. He got us in along with the press. The major had no idea what the project was for, just what the design was and that he wasn’t allowed to use any sort of metal in it.” He rocked on his heels. “We went and Alex recognized the Sentinel for what it was, but he said it was obviously a Mark I and we still had time to shut the program down before it got too far off the ground.”

“How dangerous are these things, exactly?” Cap asked.

Rhodey waited to see if either of the time travelers would answer, but they both seemed to be lost in thought.

“Alex told me that it was the main reason why we gave up on winning and sent them back here.”

The room went silent as a tomb for a few moments.

“Why?” Pietro asked. “I can't imagine anything ever making me send Luna back here, no matter how bad it got.”

“ _Y_ _ ou never got the chance _ ,” Yasha growled.

The speedster stumbled back a step. Wanda’s eyes widened and she brought a hand to her mouth.

“They were self-healing and the only way that you could get them to stop coming after the refugees you and Vision were helping escape was to scatter both their atoms  _ and _ yours, allowing he and the others to get away,” he continued. “Uncle Steve nearly died when he went on a basic recon mission around the border and met  _ one _ of them.”

Lenore put a hand on his arm.

“They were able to be stopped in the beginning easily enough, but they kept being upgraded. Trask’s dream of them being self-sufficient and able to adapt to any and every situation became a reality; they never needed to recharge, they could heal almost immediately; they were even equipped with a version of Shuri’s sonic stabilizers that rendered most of Wakandan technology useless against them.”

T’Challa’s head shot up at that.

“How did they get it?”

Lenore shook her head.

“They didn’t steal it, they figured it out on their own.” She addressed the room at large. “We cannot allow them to continue this endeavor. It may not be specifically meant for mutants now, but the original purpose and the timing are too obvious to be ignored.”

“Yes, but this is a government project,” Banner reminded. “None of us have any say in anything so what are we supposed to do?”

“We do the same thing you’ve been doing.” Carter leaned over the table and brought up the schedule of interviews and meetings for the next week. “You said you were allowed to view the demonstration with members of the press?”

Rhodey nodded. For someone who hadn’t been in this century for a full week yet, Peggy Carter had been quick on the ideas and planning the whole time.

“Then we can assume they will be talking about it rather quickly. It might not be very popular, but if we can bring it to the forefront of people’s attention and remind them of the  _ history _ behind the project and why it existed in the first place, we won’t have to do anything. The public will demand it be shut down as a human rights violation.”

“Oh, Ms. Carter.” Tony grinned. “You are a clever one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: The next fic heavily discusses some heavy subjects so READ THE TAGS!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Panic attacks! I've had a few of those in the past few weeks. They suck...


End file.
